Draft Electoral Boundaries Released for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly.

This morning the Northern Territory Redistribution Committee released its draft electoral boundaries for the NT Legislative Assembly.

Once finalised, the new boundaries will apply for the next NT election due for August 2016.

The public are now invited to comment on the draft boundaries. After considering the comments, final boundaries will be released later this year. Details of the boundaries and how to make a submission can be found at the NT Electoral Commission's website.

The Committee has had to deal with the three Alice Springs seats being well under quota, as well as a rapid decline in enrolment in Nhulunbuy since the closure of the bauxite processing plant. At the same time, population has been booming on Darwin's fringe.

The Commission has chosen to cut the representation of Alice Springs to two seats, with the balance of the town joined with the southern end of the abolished seat of Stuart as the new seat of Battarbee.

The new seat of Spillett has been created covering the northern parts of Darwin's satellite city, the rapidly growing Palmerston local government area.

Politically this abolishes one Country Liberal seat in the red centre and creates a new Country Liberal seat in Palmerston.

Of the two abolished seats, Stuart is held by Cabinet Minister Bess Price, while Araluen is held by backbench party rebel Robyn Lambley.

The Darwin seats of Fong Lim and Sanderson have been weakened for the Country Liberals, Arafura has been strengthened, while the Labor position is strengthened in Arnhem, held by CLP member turned Independent Larisa Lee.

If may be that Fong Lim MP Dave Tollner may prefer to contest the new seat of Spillett, leaving Fong Lim as a highly vulnerable CLP seat.

Five seats are unchanged, (Katherine as well as the Darwin seats of Johnston, Karama, Nightcliff and Port Darwin), while two seats adopt new names, Milirrpum (formerly Nhulunbuy) and Somerville (formerly Wanguri).

The tables below summarises the old and new margins for all seats. Figures updated at 2pm on 16 June 2015 after checking all calculations.

Arafura

Held by

Francis Xavier (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 1.0%

New Margin

CLP 2.4%

Loses Jabiru and Kakadu National Park to Arnhem, areas that voted a majroity for Labor at the 2012 election, increasing the Country Liberal majority marginally.

Arnhem

Held by

Larisa Lee (IND, ex-CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 5.3%

New Margin

CLP 2.7%

Major changes, losing Groote Eylandt to Milirrpum (formerly Nhulunbuy) while gaining Jabirua and Kakadu National Park from Arafura and areas east of Katherine from Stuart. This cuts the Country Liberal margin in the seat. Sitting member Larisa Lee left the Country Liberal Party in early 2014 and now sits as an Independent.

Barkly

Held by

Gerry McCarthy (ALP)

Old Margin

ALP 7.6%

New Margin

ALP 7.6%

Unchanged.

Battarbee (replaces Araluen and Stuart)

Held by

See notes

Old Margin

See notes

New Margin

CLP 12.4%

Replaces the Alice Springs seat of Araluen (CLP 22.2%) held by Robyn Lambley, and the outback seat of Stuart (CLP 3.5%) held by Bess Price. The seat loses central Alice Springs to Braitling and Greatorex, gains areas at the western end of Larapinta Drive from Braitling, and includes all of the southern end of the former seat of Stuart.

Blain

Held by

Nathan Barrett (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 13.2%

New Margin

CLP 15.5%

Rosebery is re-united within Blain, but Bellamack and Moulden have been transferred to Drysdale. Barrett was elected to replace fromer Chief Minister Terry Mills at an April 2014 by-election. The CLP margin at the by-election was 3.2%

Braitling

Held by

Adam Giles (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 23.6%

New Margin

CLP 22.0%

Loses Larapinta to Battarbee and the Alice Springs CBD to Greatorex while gaining Gillen and the rest of Araluen from the abolished seat of Araluen.

Brennan

Held by

Peter Chandler (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 14.2%

New Margin

CLP 12.6%

Gains part of Gray from Drysdale, loses Johnston and the rest of Rosebery to Blain and Farrar to Spillett.

Casuarina

Held by

Lauren Moss (ALP)

Old Margin

ALP 9.3%

New Margin

ALP 9.5%

Loses the balance of Lyons to Somerville (formerly Wanguri) while gaining a part of the suburb of Wanguri.

Daly

Held by

Gary Higgins (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 4.7%

New Margin

CLP 5.9%

Gains the northern parts of Stuart while losing Berry Springs closer to Darwin to Goyder.

Drydale

Held by

Lia Finocchiaro (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 15.3%

New Margin

CLP 12.2%

Loses parts of Gray to Brennan, Durack and Yarrawonga to the new seat of Spillett, while gaining Bellanmack and Moulden from Blain.

Fannie Bay

Held by

Michael Gunner (ALP)

Old Margin

ALP 6.8%

New Margin

ALP 6.1%

Loses Stuart Park to Fong Lim, gaining Ludmilla in return.

Fong Lim

Held by

Dave Tollner (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 7.3%

New Margin

CLP 0.6%

Loses Ludmilla to Fannie Bay in return for Stuart Park, while losing all the areas between Darwin Airport and Palmerston to the new seat of Spillett. Gains Marrara north of the airport from Sanderson.

Goyder

Held by

Kezia Purick (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 16.7%

New Margin

CLP 14.7%

Loses areas around Humpty Doo to Nelson while gaining Berry Springs from Daly.

Greatorex

Held by

Matt Conlan (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 14.8%

New Margin

CLP 15.9%

The western boundary moves from the Todd River to the Stuart Highway, gaining the Alice Springs CBD from Braitling and The Gap from Araluen.

Johnston

Held by

Ken Vowles (ALP)

Old Margin

ALP 5.7%

New Margin

ALP 5.7%

Unchanged.

Karama

Held by

Delia Lawrie (ALP)

Old Margin

ALP 6.4%

New Margin

ALP 6.4%

Unchanged.

Katherine

Held by

Willem Westra Van Holthe (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 22.3%

New Margin

CLP 22.3%

Unchanged.

Milirrpum (replaces Nhulunbuy)

Held by

Lynne Walker (ALP)

Old Margin

ALP 19.0%

New Margin

ALP 12.5%

Gains Groote Eylandt from Arnhem and changes name.

Namatjira

Held by

Alison Anderson (IND, ex-CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 18.6%

New Margin

CLP 18.6%

Only minor changes. Alison Anderson resigned from the Country Liberals in early 2014 and now sits as an Independent.

Nelson

Held by

Gerry Wood (IND)

Old Margin

IND 9.2%

New Margin

IND held

Loses Robertson Barracks and areas to the west to the new seat of Spillett, gaining parts of Humpty Doo from Goyder.

Nightcliff

Held by

Natasha Fyles (ALP)

Old Margin

ALP 9.2%

New Margin

ALP 9.2%

Unchanged.

Port Darwin

Held by

John Elferink (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 9.6%

New Margin

CLP 9.6%

Unchanged.

Sanderson

Held by

Peter Styles (CLP)

Old Margin

CLP 3.1%

New Margin

CLP 1.3%

Gains parts of the suburb of Wanguri. Loses Marrara to Fong Lim.

Somerville (replaces Wanguri)

Held by

Nicole Manison (ALP)

Old Margin

ALP 7.0%

New Margin

ALP 6.5%

As well as a change of name, the electorate gains the balance of the suburb of Lyons from Casuarina but loses the suburb of Wanguri to Sanderson and Casuarina.

Spillett (new seat)

Held by

New seat

Old Margin

..

New Margin

CLP 24.7%

New seat covering northern parts of Palmerston as well as the areas between Darwin and Palmerston.

Comments

Fong Lim sure looks like a classic "leftovers" seat, of all the odd bits and pieces they couldn't fit anywhere else. A bunch of disconnected suburbs cut off from each other by the Stuart Highway and the airport.

COMMENT: The old Fong Lim was the odder electorate, even more a bits and pieces electorate than the new Spillett. The new Fong Lim has a core in Stuart Park, Bayview Woolner and The Narrows close to the city. The problem is that to avoid a major re-draw in the northern suburbs, they've transferred Marrara on the other side of the airport from Sanderson to Fong Lim. It makes the electorate look very odd.

The position of the airport plus flood tide plans have shaped the growth of Darwin. That has meant there is always one electorate that has to straddled the airport and the empty ground between Darwin and Palmerston.

- Mark Mulcair June 18, 2015 at 09:28 AM

What Antony nor the ABC will go near is the rigging of the Qld State elections where *** snip ** used fraudulently acquired Postal Vote Ballot papers to **snip - there are defamation laws in this country **

The LNP and ECQ uses the same computer to push through bogus postal vote applications which were dropped in 10 days after the polls closed and ** snip - see above comments **.

Come on Antony, if you want to be real about your comments tell everyone how you got it wrong in 1987 with Keating winning the unwinnable election.

The only reason you get it so right is because you know the system and if you don't want to tell the public how their country elections are rigged then perhaps you are as much as part of the problem as the rorting of elections.

COMMENT: I suggest if you want to defame people, you do it on your own website and deal with the consequences.

There is no 100 vote rule. The AEC has an automatic recount under 100 votes, but a re-count only counts ballot papers. It does not go back to original documents such as postal vote applications and receipts. Any result can be challenged in the Court of Disputed Returns for electoral fraud and it is only by challenge that the ECQ is required to bring forward all records relating to the conduct of the poll. Illegality uncovered by the Court of Disputed Returns would lead to prosecution and can overturn a result.

The LNP and the ECQ do not use the same computer system.

The unloseable election was 1993, not 1987. I can't figure out if you are saying i got the result right or wrong.

- Rob Bowyer June 22, 2015 at 05:49 AM

Dear Moderator,

I have all the paperwork, I went to the CCC, it is before the PCCC, a unicameral governing system in Qld allows for the Chief Justice to stand in the Court of Disputed Returns be self appointment instead of the standing roster arrangement.................... c'mon please. The whole changes to the Electoral Act 1994 by Jarrod Bieljie were about winning the elections and he promoted postal votes as one of four sweeteners to get themselves over the line the three others increase donations $12,400, ID voting (discourages Labor Aboriginals) increase minor party financial refund vote level to 10%.

You know that the 1922 vote to pass the Bill to remove the upper house was approved by 28 of the 56 members and the Queensland Constitution requires 38 members in Section 9................. it is all a big fat lie which supports the two party system enabling the far right and far left factions to be unable to be controlled under the Westminster System.............. different standard of Law for individuals in Queensland .............. now there's a constitutional High Court challenge. C'mon ABC..................... democracy needs your help!!!!!!

COMMENT: The Queensland Constitution states that a single justice can sit as the Court of Disputed Returns, and that can be the Chief Justice. There is a roster in place for judges to serve in that role but that is a matter of practice. Whether an attempt to change the roster took place has been addressed in several media stories. No doubt the matter of an attempt to change the roster and why it occurred are the matters you have referred the CCC. As events unfolded, no cases went to the Court of Disputed Returns.

The points you make about the changes to the electoral act have some truth, except I would point out that the government didn't win the election and the new government is attempting to reverse some of the changes made to the Electoral Act.

Your comment concerning the interpretation of Section 9 of the 1867 Queensland Constitution Act misses a very important point. The two-thirds provision was repealed in 1908.

The main drag was once the heart and soul of many regional Australian cities, but if you walk through a town's central business district these days, you will often see for lease signs and shuttered up shops.